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In the Cafe of Lost Youth

Patrick Modiano was born in Paris, France in 1945. He was the recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. He previously won the 2012 Austrian State Prize for European Literature, the 2010 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca from the Institut de France for lifetime achievement, the 1978 Prix Goncourt for Rue des boutiques obscures, and the 1972 Grand Prix du roman de l'Academie francaise for Les Boulevards de ceinture.

As beautiful as a tragic song... * Nouvel Observateur * Some novels, the more precious and necessary, render their readers more vulnerable, disarmed and fragile. And such is the case with this deeply moving portrait of a woman so familiar, and yet so lost, drawn by Modiano at the exact border between shadow and light. * Le Monde * Patrick Modiano is certainly the greatest contemporary French novelist. A magnetic novel, set in a magical Paris ... A new precious stone. * Lire * Those familiar with Modiano will recognise his themes, his settings, his characters. Yet there is never any repetition, or sense of deja vu. Rather the sentiment that nothing is mere chance. * Quinzaine Litteraire * As beautiful as a tragic song... -- Jerome Garcin * Nouvel Observateur * Some novels, the more precious and necessary, render their readers more vulnerable, disarmed and fragile. And such is the case with this deeply moving portrait of a woman so familiar, and yet so lost, drawn by Modiano at the exact border between shadow and light. -- Patrick Kechichian * Le Monde * Those familiar with Modiano will recognise his themes, his settings, his characters. Yet there is never any repetition, or sense of deja vu. Rather the sentiment that nothing is mere chance. -- Norbert Czarney * Quinzaine Litteraire *